Russian airstrikes hit hospital, several injured

Russia launched several missile attacks on the town of Selydove in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, damaging a hospital, destroying a dozen residential flats, and injuring several people, Donetsk Governor Vadym Filashkin said on Wednesday.

“Reportedly, three people, including a child, are under the rubble (of the hospital),” Filashkin said on the Telegram messaging app, adding that 100 patients were evacuated to hospitals in nearby towns.

The 1 a.m. Wednesday strike damaged a wing of the hospital, Filashkin said. He posted a video of windows blown out, walls torn, and rubble inside what seemed like a medical facility, with patients sitting or lying in beds.

The attack followed a strike on Selydove late on Tuesday that destroyed 12 apartments in a five-story residential building and injured at least four people, including two children, Filashkin said.

Reuters was not able to independently verify the reports. There was no immediate response from Russia’s defense ministry to a request for comment.

Both Russia and Ukraine deny targeting civilians in strikes on each other’s territories. Both sides say their air attacks, often away from the front line, have the goal of destroying critical energy and military and transport infrastructure.

The town of Selydove, which had a pre-war population of around 24,000, has come under increased Russian airstrikes in recent weeks, Ukrainian officials said.

The Donetsk region, 57% of which is now occupied by Russia, has been at the forefront of war since 2014, when Russian-backed proxies seized the region’s capital city, also called Donetsk, as well as many other large towns. (Reuters)